The Nashville Predators are the talk of the NHL despite going down 1-0 in their 2nd Round series against the Winnipeg Jets. While they lost the game, they outperformed the Jets in just about every single facet of the game. When the dust settled, they had taken almost every category besides goals. To put it into perspective how much the Preds dominated, they outshot their opponent 48-18, nearly tripling the Jets.
Unfortunately it didn’t work, but the Preds can hold their head high about the performance and simply chalk it up to Connor Hellebuyck committing grand larceny in net. One category in the match that they can be particularly proud of is their discipline. While playoff hockey sometimes lets rough play slide, it is still impressive that the Predators literally did not take one penalty in the game.
In fact, the Predators have not had to kill off a penalty since Game 5 of Round One against the Colorado Avalanche. While they took two penalties in Game 6, both were offset by Avs’ penalties.
The last time the Preds had to kill a penalty was when Kevin Fiala committed a hold against Blake Comeau 1:39 into the 3rd period of Game 5. Since then, the Preds (and their dangerous powerplay units) have enjoyed eight man advantages.
Some fans aren’t buying the discipline argument, and believe that it attributes more to the refs missing calls.
While it’s true that often times a category like penalties balances out as the game goes on, there is something to be said about Nashville’s discipline.
